Exunomia, elongated coins, squished pennies, smashed pennies, whatever way you called that, are originally US pennies being compressed by two rollers (or dies) with design.
What comes out is one of the three or four designs (depending on the type of pressed penny machine) that you have chosen.
Nobody knows who started the idea of pressed pennies and why they were created.
However, I perceived that it started way back when people put their pennies on train tracks and allowed the train to flattened the pennies as it goes over them.
These flattened pennies were then engraved to any design they wanted.
I wonder who was the very first person who got the idea of squishing his pennies on railway tracks.
I guess that's what sparked the idea of a pressed penny machine.
A simple, fun activity that ignited a huge fan of collectors.
The collection of pressed pennies became a branch of numismatics (coin collectors).
The first elongated coins were created at World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illnois, held in 1893.
Charles Damm is the earliest recorded elongated coin designer.
Frank Brazzel, the most well-known prolific engraver, died in early 1990s, but many of his designs are still being pressed out on original dies.
Today, the hobby of collecting elongated coins on US pennies, dimes, quarters, nickels, and even brass tokens, copper planchets, aluminium tokens, has expanded throughout USA and into the world.
Now, many pressed penny machines can be found in places of interests in the world, shopping malls, and even privately at homes! No matter where they are found, be sure to look out for one when you travel overseas.
It gives people the delight to discover pressed penny machines and the thrill to press out the designs.
Pressed Pennies or elongated coins make great gifts too.
Know of someone who collects elongated pennies? He has a pressed penny book to hold all his pennies and each time you visit him, he would excitedly take them out to show you the different designs he has collected all over the world? Give him a pressed penny he does not have yet.
He would be over the moon to receive that! There are two kinds of pressed penny machines.
One is the manual hand-cranked machine and the other is the auto non-handcranked.
The hand-cranked machine is more interactive and it attracts people of all ages to want to grab that handle and turn it.
It serves as a form of attraction.
The automatic pressed penny machine does all the work itself while you wait for the pressed penny to comes out of the dispenser.
Whichever it is, both machines are fun and have their own unique way of dispensing your product.
So hurry head down and make sure you have experienced smashing your very own penny! Feel yourself compressing the tokens or US pennies with your strength!